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Animals in the News

We humans share this planet with countless other species, interacting with many of them daily, others rarely. We treat some as sources of food and others as sources of companionship, entertainment, or education. We experiment with them at a genetic level, try to understand their overall behavior, and bond with them on an intimate scale. Most animals live their lives independently of us, but they dwell in habitats that we shape profoundly. Gathered below are images of animals in the news from the past several weeks, seen from the perspectives of their human observers, companions, captors, and caretakers.

A monkey who survived the Ivorian post-electoral crisis at the Abidjan Zoo. Three lions named Lea, Simba and Loulou, "died of hunger", said Claude-Sie Kam, a zoo employee, to an AFP reporter. About forty animals perished due to lack of food at the Abidjan Zoo during the Ivorian crisis.#

Paul Pratti, a sheriff's deputy and wildlife rehabilitator places a 5-month-old bear cub in a carrier after he was captured roaming the White Lake area in Sullivan County, New York, with a plastic jug stuck on his head, on August 5, 2011. The undernourished and dehydrated cub was brought to a rehabilitation center. Authorities are not sure how long the jug was stuck on his head.#

Snorkelers swim with a six meter whale shark just outside Hanifaru Bay of Maldives' remote Baa Atoll, on August 11, 2011. Every year, hundreds of whale sharks and giant manta rays gather for their annual feeding frenzy of plankton in July and August, in the geologically unique Hanifaru Bay. For reasons of conservation, Maldives is likely to shut down Hanifaru Bay to divers, making this the last season divers can see this one-of-a-kind phenomenon.#

Renana, a 3-week-old sand kitten, is seen at her enclosure in the Ramat Gan Safari near Tel Aviv August 8, 2011. The kitten is the first of the sand cat species, considered extinct in Israel, to be born at the safari park, an open-air zoo, a statement from the safari said.#

Baby mice born from sperm produced from stem cells are seen in this handout photo taken by Kyoto University professor Michinori Saito, and released to Reuters on August 5, 2011. Researchers in Japan used embryonic stem cells to grow healthy mouse sperm on laboratory dishes, a development which could help treat human infertility, they said on Friday.#

Beekeeper Lv Kongjiang, 20, stands with bees covering his body on a weighing scale during a "bee-attracting" competition against fellow beekeeper Wang Dalin in Shaoyang, Hunan province July 16, 2011. Wang and Lv competed by standing on a scale wearing only a pair of shorts and using queen bees they reared to attract other bees onto their bodies. Wang won the competition after attracting 26 kg (57 lbs) of bees on his body in 60 minutes, while Lv had 22.9 kg (50 lbs), local media reported.#

Seth Altamus stands on his paddle board as a gray whale swims close by in the Klamath River in Klamath, California, on August 4, 2011. The whale and her calf entered the river in late June during their northward journey from breeding ground in Baja California to Alaska. The rescue team spotted what they believed to be the calf swimming to sea on July 23, and scientists said the calf was mature enough to survive its journey to Alaska.#

Baby fen raft spiders are reared in test tubes at Chester Zoo, northern England, on August 9, 2011. 400 of Britain's most endangered species of spider are being hand reared at the zoo ahead of their release into the wild later this year, as part of a conservation program aimed at stemming their decline.#

A woman takes a ride on a camel as people gather at Seaview waterfront to celebrate Pakistan's Independence Day on August 14, 2011 in Karachi, Pakistan. Pakistan celebrated it's 64th Independence day on August 14, the day before Pakistan was made an independent country based on border lines created by the British during the end of their rule of India. Pakistan became an independent country in 1947.#

An owl looks on during an open day at the Leningradsky zoo in St.Petersburg, on August 14, 2011. The zoo celebrated its 146th birthday on Sunday, inviting the public to get a closer look at some of its animals.#

A warden stands guard as an illegal consignment of five tons of Ivory confiscated from smugglers is destroyed during the African Elephant Law Enforcement Day in Tsavo West National Park, 380 km (236 miles) east of capital Nairobi, Kenya, on July 20, 2011. The confiscated consignment, recovered from smugglers in Singapore in 2002, originated from poaching activities in both Zambia and Malawi, government officials said.#

A dentist polishes the teeth of a horse in Bogota, on August 12, 2011. Besides working with human patients, some dentists in Colombia also provide offer dental services for horses used in equestrian competitions. Such treatments can include the creation of molds and fixtures to help correct problems with tooth alignment and underbite. A horse typically undergoes treatment twice a month over a six-month period, with each session costing $170.#

A herd of Sri Lankan wild elephants gather at Minneriya national park, on August 12, 2011. Sri Lanka on Wednesday said it would go ahead with its first-ever wild elephant census, with the help of the military and in spite of conservationist protests that it is a ploy to pluck the best ones for domesticated use in temples, tourism and labor. Naturalists estimate Sri Lanka has between 5,000 and 7,000.#

Buddhist monks Geshe Tenley (top right) and Tsultrim Davis release a lobster back into the ocean during "Chokhor Duchen", or the anniversary of Buddha's turning of the Dharma Wheel, from a boat in the waters off Gloucester, Massachusetts, on August 3, 2011. The group of Buddhists released about 500 lobsters that were caught by commercial lobstermen, after buying the lobsters from a wholesaler who would otherwise have sold the crustaceans to restaurants. Buddhists practice liberation of animals due for slaughter as an expression of compassion for the welfare of all beings and to accumulate karmic merit. It is believed the merits of such acts are multiplied if they are performed on Chokhor Duchen.#

A flamingo flies during sunrise at the Fuente de Piedra natural reserve, near Malaga, in southern Spain August 6, 2011. Around 600 flamingos were ringed and measured before being released into the lagoon, which houses one of the largest colonies of flamingos in Europe, according to authorities of the natural reserve.#

Rescuers carry one of the four youths injured in a polar bear attack on Spitsbergen island, on August 5, 2011. The polar bear attacked a group of British campers on Friday, killing a 17-year-old boy and seriously injuring four people camping in Norway's Svalbard archipelago in the Arctic, Norwegian officials said. The patient was airlifted to the local hospital and then later to the hospital in Tromso on the Norwegian mainland.#

Two-year-old chimpanzee "Do Do" feeds milk to "Aorn", a 60-day-old tiger cub, at Samut Prakan Crocodile Farm and Zoo in Samut Prakan province on the outskirts of Bangkok, on July 30, 2011. The crocodile farm, used as a tourist attraction, houses some 80,000 crocodiles and is the largest in Thailand.#

A technician extracts venom from a scorpion at Labiofam Laboratories in Santa Clara, Villa Clara province, in central Cuba, on August 5, 2011. The venom will be used to make an anti-cancer medicine that Cuba has developed and is beginning to sell in Cuba and other countries.#

Volunteer rescuers drag a beached humpback calf to sea at Surfers Paradise Beach on August 8, 2011 on the Gold Coast of Australia. The humpback calf was stranded on the beach for hours before volunteer rescuers were able to drag it back to the sea. SeaWorld Australia says a mother and calf humpback were sighted near where the calf was released and are hoping to get photos to verify it is the same calf and that it has been reunited with it's mother.#

Heads of pigs are placed on the ground of the entrance of a warehouse of Belgian supermarket group Delhaize in Zellik, near Brussels, on August 12, 2011. Belgian pig farmers from Veva, the Belgium's Flemish association of pig farmers, are demanding a decrease of prices Delhaize proposed to offer for pork.#

Giraffe mother "Jujis" looks after her giraffe baby "Thabo" in their enclosure at the zoo of Hanover, Germany on August 12, 2011. The Rothschild giraffe is among the most endangered giraffe subspecies with only a few hundred members in the wild.#

A dead turtle lies on the dried bed of Lake Colorado City near Colorado City, Texas, on August 11, 2011. In parched West Texas, it's often easier to drill for oil than to find new sources of water. After years of diminishing water supplies made even worse by the second-most severe drought in state history, some communities are resorting to a plan that might have seemed absurd a generation ago: turning sewage into drinking water.#

A truck loaded with dogs stuffed in cages seen at an undisclosed location in Thailand's Nakhon Phanom province, on August 12, 2011. Thai authorities have rescued more than a thousand dogs, which were found stuffed into tiny cages and being smuggled out of the country to be cooked and eaten in Vietnam, officials said on August 13, 2011. Police intercepted four trucks stacked high with crates packed with the animals in an operation late on August 11 in Nakhon Phanom province in northeastern Thailand near the border with Laos.#

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